


Another Beginning's End

by iciclearrow



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23187718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iciclearrow/pseuds/iciclearrow
Summary: Alma Coin wasn't born in District Thirteen. This is how she got there.Also posted on fanfiction.net
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

Alma Coin calmly made her way into the pen where the females eligible for reaping were kept. She was glad she only had two more of these pick-a-death fests to get out of the way. Alma may have been clever, but she also knew that she was nowhere near the strongest or best fighter in the district. This was shown nowhere better than at the after school workout programs that had started a few months ago in the hopes of giving them a better shot of winning the games, and she was strongly hoping that, on the off-chance she would get reaped, that one of the stronger girls would realise she had no chance and would take her place.

The overly flamboyant escort made the same, dull speech she made every year that Alma had learned to tune out and drew a name from the females’ side. It took an elbow to her ribs and a sideways glance for Alma to process what she was hearing and realise that her name had, in fact, been the one called.

The seventeen-year-old made her way up to the stage with a neutral expression she had a feeling would one day become her standard.

Unfortunately, her classmates hadn’t realised that she’d have no chance on wits alone, and Alma Coin boarded the train to the Capitol with the male tribute, a guy from school named Ferro who was a significantly better choice than her; the escort whose voice Alma always tuned out; and the district’s 26 year old victor/mentor Caminus, who got into arguments with the escort more than he ever even looked at his tributes.

During training, it was her emotionless demeanour that seemed to scare the other tributes more than any actual skill she had, but that along with Ferro’s strength was enough to garner them some interest from District One and the male from District Four for an alliance. All but Alma had muscles and a reasonable amount of fighting skills: Fleece and Emerald from One from a class required at their schools that seemed similar to Two’s program, and Actinic from Four’s from years of swimming and apparently fighting off angry fish called “sharks,” which everyone else had assumed just meant kids at school who had insulted him. They kept her around because Fleece seemed like he had some childish crush on her and Ferro had convinced the others that she may be of use concocting plans to hunt down other tributes.

The five of them had decided that they’d need to make a bid for the Cornucopia at the beginning since none of them had strong enough “nature” skills to know what plants and animals would be edible and Alma didn’t trust Emerald and Actinic to not poison the group. Their alliance secured it without much damage to themselves, though several other tributes had died trying to take it, and Alma even thought she saw two broken alliances look like they might be trying to team up as they fled.

Most of the arena appeared heavily forested, though by climbing a tall tree near their camp, the alliance members could see several deep chasms dotting the woods. They had also taken to using the tree to gaze out over the arena in search of smoke from fires or other signs of tributes, though that came to an end four days into the games when Emerald fell and broke her left leg in two places, both of her arms, and several of her ribs. Her effort to keep from showing her pain was obvious, but Fleece, quick to grow frustrated or angry, found it annoying.

He came back to the group a few minutes later, spattered with blood and justifying her death by telling the three of them that she’d just be a burden with all of those injuries.

Two days later, the alliance that Alma had seen forming on their flight from the Cornucopia returned, sans the girl from Eight who had died the day before Emerald. The remaining four members died in the skirmish, but not without managing to take Ferro with them, thanks to the boy from Ten, who was unusually agile and had managed to confuse him before stabbing with a knife that someone had dropped.

Alma’s alliance came to an end with the death of the girl from Three ten days after the games had started. Actinic had dared to climb the tree for the first time since Emerald’s death and seen smoke from a fire a little less than a mile away. Actinic and Fleece had left Alma behind to ward off any of the wild animals who might try to steal their food.

In the end, they should have worried about Alma stealing their food more than they had about the animals, because that’s what she did. She had found a hollow under a fallen tree two days prior and hid the best supplies in it while Fleece and Actinic were out hunting the girl from Three. When they returned, Fleece blamed Actinic from luring him away from the Cornucopia to pull off a scheme that he had clearly been planning with a girl he hardly knew since the beginning. Actinic, already a defensive person, kept saying that he didn’t do anything without any actual explanation, which had only fueled Fleece’s anger. Fleece pulled out his sword and began slashing at Actinic, who started dodging. However, Fleece didn’t appreciate Actinic’s dodging technique and picked up the pace, pushing forward. Actinic continued dodging as he backed up, narrowly avoiding crashing into several of the surrounding trees.

Alma barely managed to scramble up the nearest tree as the two teens moved passed her, Fleece’s sword nearly giving her a haircut as she slipped and rolled upside down, hanging onto a branch like the sloth mutations that had killed a couple of tributes a few days prior. She soon reoriented herself and kept climbing to see if she'd be able to tell where the fight had gone.

Though she couldn’t make out Actinic or Fleece through all the leaves, the should of rustling branches showed the direction that they had gone until Alma noticed the chasm they had come to. Actinic must have noticed where he’d backed up to ask well, because the branches suddenly started to shake much more violently, and Alma couldn’t detect any lateral movement.

Soon, however, she realised that she had climbed too high into a tree that was too weak, and the trunk felt like it was beginning to bend under her weight. She scrambled down, but as she neared the bottom, the tree came down with a deafening crack. All of the noises from the boys’ fight suddenly ceased, and Alma knew she’d need to defend herself. She picked up a branch that looked sharp from where it had snapped off of the falling tree and ran.

After lopping around to one side, Alma ran the chasm, heading towards the general area that Fleece and Actinic had been fighting. She had planned to follow their path and sneak up on them trying to find her, but the two were still at the chasm, slowly coming around to face each other and resume their fight.

She hung back when she noticed that they weren’t looking for the source of the noise. It was only when Fleece began pushing Actinic back and into the chasm when Alma realised that this fight wouldn’t go the way she had wanted and that she needed to get involved. She took her branch, ran a little ways back into the trees, and circled back behind Fleece just as he was giving the last push for Actinic to fall into the gaping hole in the ground. Alma rushed forward, branch lowered, and rammed Fleece into the pit after his rival.

Alma began to slow her run as she neared the chasm that the last two of her alliance members had fallen into, but there wasn’t anywhere near enough distance left, and she leapt, wondering what the Capitol would do when all of them had fallen into the gorge and died. She was midway over the hole and still giving the idea a good ponder when two cannons fired off and a crane reached down for her mid jump. Her last thought before the adrenaline left her system and she slumped over was that she couldn’t believe that ramming someone with a branch had _worked._


	2. Chapter 2

Alma felt dead to the world for the next three days. Part of it was probably shock—she hadn’t expected to get out of that arena alive, for one thing, and she had also ended up having to kill someone for it with a plan that should have never worked. She had told herself when she was making her original plan that if they got into a fight and killed each other, then she wouldn’t really be the one to kill them. Yes, she would have started the fight that ended in their deaths, but they would have ultimately killed each other with their stubbornness.

But that wasn’t how it happened. Alma didn’t know how she felt about that, and, if she was honest with herself, she didn’t want to know how she felt about that. It would have come down to her or him (she wasn’t even sure she wanted to think about his name, as dumb as it had sounded), but there was also no getting around the fact that she had killed him.

She wished she could forget that she was a killer now. She didn’t even have the temperament to be a killer—she was more of a schemer, a behind-the-scenes person who everyone knew was there making it function, but not the one they could see doing the tricks.

She had seen how the Capitol paraded around the previous victors (killers). She didn’t want that. She needed to go.

On the third night, the hospital let Alma go, supposedly on good behaviour (though she had done exactly nothing since arriving), Caminus telling her that the celebrations would start in the morning and told her to get some rest in her bed at the Training Centre. She left the hospital before any paperwork could be done, knowing someone else could do it if they truly cared about her sitting in a bed for a few days.

Hours later, unable to relax enough to sleep, Alma packed up what little she had taken to the city with her and left. She knew there must be cameras watching her leave, but no one came to stop her. Alma had no idea where she was going besides “away,” but it didn’t matter too much. If she didn’t like where she ended up, she would just go somewhere else. If someone recognised her and tried to take her to the Capitol or anywhere where someone might bring her back to the Capitol, she’d run.

Strangely, the city wasn’t fenced in any way. Whether because its citizens weren’t restricted in very many ways, or because its citizens had no desire to leave or any other reason imaginable, the girl was grateful that her departure wasn’t hindered. She had no intention of lingering, and no desire to ever return.

Alma spent weeks hiking through mountains, forests, and all sorts of other terrain, changing direction any time she saw a fence or any other sign of civilisation. It felt like months almost by the time she stumbled across a pond surrounded by small buildings. She almost turned around and ran in fear of someone catching her when she took full note of everything. There were no signs of human life. No sounds of chatter or footsteps, no smoke or lights shining from the houses, not even any domesticated animals.

She eventually decided to spend the night in one of the buildings. It would protect her from the wind, at least, and there might even be some clues about what plants in the area were edible. Alma may not have known much about survival during the games, but she’d had to take some guesses if it meant she wouldn’t starve once she’d escaped. She’d watched what animals had eaten and hoped their digestive systems were similar enough to hers, but hadn’t tried to hunt any of them because she didn’t want to risk the smoke from a fire.

Overall, she’d risked eating very little, so any information or food left behind by whoever had once lived by this pond would be greatly appreciated. The teen was just settling in for the night when she heard the first sounds of human life from outside. It sounded like footsteps coming from the other side of the pond, followed by soft splashes. She peeked her eyes over the empty window sill and saw a lone figure standing knee-deep in the water.

As Alma watched, he bent down and scooped up something. At first, it was hard to tell what it was, but then the figure raised whatever it was to his mouth and ate it.

The girl wanted to rush out and ask what plant that was, but stopped herself with the reminder that the unknown person might report her and get her sent to the Capitol, and, at this point, most likely punished. Instead, she took careful note of where he was standing so she could inspect the area more closely when the person left.

Alma ended waiting for the man in the pond to leave for hours, by which time it was completely dark. Deciding it would do her no good to look for the plants he had been eating when she wouldn’t be able to see them properly, she fell asleep.

Morning came, she found the plant, gathered as much of it as she could, and went on her way, in the opposite direction that the man seemed to have come from.

Several more days came and went, but it seemed the further Alma went, the more barren the land seemed to be. She had found barely any of the new plant since she had left the pond, and almost as much water or other plants she knew she could eat. It was just when she found a pile of rubble and thought the complete lack of plant and animal life in front of her signified her doom that she noticed that there was smoke (or was it steam?) rising from various points in the ground.

Alma carefully backed away, wary of explosives that may have been buried beneath the rubble. She examined the mist coming from the ground and decided that it was steam, and therefore much more likely to be man-made. Just as she was about to make her way somewhere else where there would definitely be no people, she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye as a door in the ground opened and a man stepped out.

“We’ve been waiting for you, Alma Coin. We are District Thirteen. Come with me.” the man said, extending a hand full of the plant from the lake before turning around and descending beneath the ground.


End file.
